Shifter's Lady (3 page)

“As I said, Atlantean, I will protect your sister as my own. Do you doubt my word or honor?” His words dropped like heated stones into the sudden silence, and Marie felt the tension between the men shoot up to an unbearable level. “Even now, my pride-brothers surround this area to guard and protect.”

“I doubt neither, shape-shifter, but you would feel the same about Kat, and you know it,” Bastien returned, in a tone far more reasonable than Marie had expected from him. Evidently the liaison role he'd undertaken had affected him in more ways than merely touched the surface. The brother she'd always known would have led with his fists. This new brother used logic. Marie smiled at Bastien, delighted at the change.

“And yet Kat is now under
your
protection, and I am at peace with her decision, however wrongheaded it may have been,” Ethan said smoothly.

The interplay between the men was fascinating to observe, but for once in her centuries of existence, Marie was impatient with merely acting as observer. She held her arms out at her sides, palms up. “I find I have tired of being talked about as though the decision were not my own. Lady Kat, perhaps you will take me into your lovely home, so I might freshen up and be settled?”

Kat grinned and gestured to the small cabin. “It's Kat. And I'd be delighted to, Marie. I have a feeling we're going to be great friends.”

Marie crossed to her brother and stood on the tips of her toes to press a kiss onto his cheek. “Be well, and find Lord Justice. Do not worry about me. As I have repeatedly told Alaric, Conlan, and what seems to have been three dozen of your fellow warriors, I am not defenseless. The goddess protects her own.”

Bastien lifted her off her feet in a strong embrace. “I know this is true. Be well, and I will return as soon as we find Justice and free him from—”

Marie touched his lips with her fingers. “Do not speak her name here in this place. Names hold power, and I do not wish to attract her attention to your beloved's home.”

Bastien nodded and stepped back, then bowed. “I will return as soon as I may,” he repeated.

Alaric, who had remained uncharacteristically silent, spoke up. “Send a message should you have need of me, First Maiden.” He bowed to her, then gestured with one hand to draw the portal to open for his and Bastien's return to Atlantis.

Marie nodded her thanks, then turned to walk toward the cabin and give Kat and Bastien a moment for a private farewell. Ethan, who had remained standing behind her as if frozen into place, now blocked her path. He stared down at her, and the heat
she'd felt earlier at his mere glance intensified until she wanted to lean into him and soak up his warmth, wrap herself in the flames that the touch of his skin must surely generate in her body.

She drew in a deep breath and forced her expression to one of calm amusement. “Must I have the same talk with you that I have had with my brothers so many times over the centuries? The one about individual responsibility? Where I explain in very simple words that I am no fragile Atlantean flower to be cared for and coddled in a hothouse?”

Ethan leaned forward slightly, his hands behind his back, and raised one silken, dark eyebrow. “Simple words might be a really good idea, beautiful,” he said softly. “Because I'm having a hell of a fight with my inner cat right now, who wants to carry you off, strip you bare, and lick all of that deliciously creamy skin of yours.”

She inhaled sharply as his words sent tsunami waves of shock and heat slapping through her nerve endings. Before she could summon a properly stinging response, he lifted a hand and touched a curl that had escaped her braids. “And as for individual responsibility, I intend to be
completely
responsible for seeing this glorious hair unbound and spread all over my bed. So consider that, Lady Marie, and maybe you'll be the one who wants to run back to your hothouse.”

Her much-prized serenity completely deserted her. “You…you—”

“Yes,” he said firmly. “Me. Remember it.” Then he bowed to her, flashing another of those mocking smiles, and strode off, sketching a half salute toward Bastien and Alaric over his shoulder. Marie glanced at her brother, wondering if he'd caught the interplay between her and Ethan, but Bastien was talking intently with Kat. When she looked back toward Ethan, she saw nothing but a tawny blur disappearing through the trees. She finally let out the breath she had not realized she was holding and continued toward the cabin on knees gone suddenly weak.

Life with the landwalkers was going to be far more fascinating than she had ever imagined.

Ethan leapt into the trees, shifting as his feet left the ground. In panther form, he ran as far and as fast as he could, determined to outpace the overpowering hunger she'd awakened in him.

Marie.

The mere thought of her name sent another rush of heat through him, and the cat he'd become snarled and pushed harder, lengthening his strides, escaping from the subtle scent of sea and flowers that had surrounded her.

Needed to run. Further and further. Needed to run away from the woman who'd destroyed his equilibrium in sixty seconds flat.

Strip her bare and lick her skin? What the
hell
had he been thinking? Not two minutes after swearing his protection in front of her brother and the priest, he'd insulted and threatened her. He snorted and drew his lips back from his fangs, snarling again as he ran. Not only was he a damned fool, but he'd probably incited some kind of international incident.

Panting, finally nearing exhaustion, he slowed to a walk, padding on four powerful legs that were trembling faintly from the strain of the run. He looked around and stopped, recognizing the woods behind his house, the big-ass mansion that served as home and headquarters to the alpha of the Big Cypress pride. No wonder he was short of breath and suffering from a little muscle fatigue. He'd never run ten miles in such a short time.

Maybe lust was good for the metabolism.

He called to the magic that infused both halves of his dual natures and lifted his head to receive the transformation. As always, the shift came to him effortlessly, and he stood fully clothed in his human form afterward. Ease of performing the shape change was one of many indicators of shape-shifter strength, and he was alpha. Strongest of all the shape-shifters in Big Cypress. Rumored to be the strongest in all of Florida; perhaps in all of the southeast region.

“Yeah, big, tough alpha cat, running away from a female,” he muttered in disgust.

But some trick of the wind brought the faint scent of the sea to his panther-enhanced senses and—just like that—it was as though she stood before him again. He clenched his jaw as his cock hardened painfully in his suddenly too-tight jeans, and he realized that he'd been fooling himself.

Alpha or not, there was no way he'd be able to run away from this woman. Every fiber of his being was commanding him to turn around and run right back to her, but he refused to surrender to the impulse. Grimly determined to put the insane attraction behind him and get back to the serious business of discovering who or what was stalking his panthers, he strode toward his house.

So she was like some kind of crazy Atlantean catnip. He could resist catnip.

His cat snarled inside him, then rolled luxuriously, sending Ethan the sensation of warmth and silken fur curled around a blaze of feral hunger. The image of Marie's creamy skin and dark, drowning blue eyes flashed into his mind, and he nearly stumbled.

Dammit. He was toast.

Marie sat in a chair at the kitchen table, hands folded in her lap, still trying to retrieve her usual calm, when Kat entered the cabin a few minutes later. Kat hesitated briefly in the doorway before seeming to come to some internal resolution. She stalked across the cabin's warm and inviting living space, lush with wooden furniture and yellow and red overstuffed cushions. The sunlight from the window gleamed on Kat's golden hair, as it had done with Ethan.

Ethan.

Stop thinking of him.

Kat stopped a few paces in front of Marie and took a deep breath. “Okay, here's the thing,” she blurted out. “If you're here to tell me I'm not good enough for him, well, I kind of know that. I mean, you guys are Atlantean nobility and all. Denal filled me in on how Bastien is really Lord Bastien and you're Lady Marie. But I love him, and I'm going to fight for him.”

Marie raised one eyebrow and studied Kat for nearly a full minute before responding. Finally she smiled and stood so she faced Kat, their eyes on a level. “And of course that is all I need to know about you. You love him, and you're willing to fight for him. From what I have heard, you were willing to die for him.”

Kat's face reddened, but she didn't lower her gaze. “He nearly died for me. Do you think I could do less?”

Marie hugged the woman who was truly worthy of her brother. “I thank the Goddess for you, Katherine Fiero, and that my brother has found you. Be welcome to our family.”

Something tense seemed to relax in Kat's body, and she returned Marie's hug. “Well…wow. Thanks. And welcome to my family, too. Which mostly consists of my pride, but I'm sure Ethan already welcomed you to that, as well.”

A rush of heat swept through Marie, and she looked down quickly before Kat could see the evidence of it on her face.

“What? What did he say to you?” Kat asked, suspicion heavy
in her tone. “I know he can be kind of rough-edged, but he is a good man. I'm sorry if he gave you a bad impression—”

“It was nothing. I am, after all, accustomed to warriors and their arrogance.” Marie lifted her bag. “Perhaps I could settle in, and then we can have a talk?”

“I guess he's not the only one with rough edges,” Kat said, grinning. “I'm sorry. Let me show you the guest room, and I'll make some coffee. Then we can have a nice long chat.”

“I look forward to both the coffee and the talk,” Marie said, returning her new sister's smile. As she followed Marie down the narrow hallway to the guest room, she reminded herself that she had more than three hundred years of practice in self-control. No arrogant alpha shape-shifter would be a match for her. Perhaps she would take him for a lover. He might be amusing for a few days.

A shiver raced down her spine at the thought of bedding all that lean, hard muscle. Staring into those burning golden eyes while he drove his body into hers.

No, she was candid above all things, even to herself.
Especially
to herself. There was definitely nothing
amusing
about him.

Marie filled her third cup of the rich Irish cream coffee that Kat had brewed, then replaced the glass carafe in its position, closed her eyes, and held the mug near her face to inhale the luscious aroma. “This is truly magnificent. I must bring some of it home with me when I return to Atlantis.”

Kat laughed and shook her head. “Better wait first and see what kind of reaction you have to that much caffeine. Three cups in an hour and a half may have you crawling out of your skin.”

They'd fallen into an easy friendship, as was only to be expected from two women who both loved her brother. Kat was passionate about her work, and her stories of life as a park ranger were fascinating and so completely different from Marie's own secluded life in the temple that they raised a feeling akin to envy.

“You are so fortunate to have been brought up to such independence,” she said, placing her mug on the table. “The Goddess placed her mark on me when I was yet a child, and my family knew I was destined for the temple. My life was a regimented one of study and apprenticeship.”

Kat bit her lip. “I'm so sorry. Was it awful?”

“Oh, no, no. I don't mean to give that impression. Free will reigns in Atlantis; though the Goddess marked me, I could have declined life as her maiden. But from the moment I stepped foot in the temple, her power infused me. My Gift is to heal and assist those women who are with child and their unborn children, and I am honored to fulfill that role.”

“Bastien said you were the boss?”

Marie laughed. “Boss? Not exactly. I am First Maiden, and my role is to lead and train the acolytes.
Boss
is such a funny human word, but I suppose some aspects of it apply.”

“Hey, don't knock it,” Kat advised. “On Bosses' Day, I send my supervisor a box of Godiva chocolates.”

“Chocolate? I could get used to the word
boss
for chocolate…”

A loud ringing interrupted their shared laughter, and Kat rose to pull a small silver telephone from her jacket pocket and snap it open. “Fiero. Yes. No, I have—but, that's…Yes. Yes, of course.” She sighed. “Fine, I'll be there in two hours.”

She closed her phone and muttered something under her breath, then turned to Marie. “I'm so sorry, but that was
my
boss, coincidentally. We've got a regional meeting tomorrow morning, and the person in charge of putting on an important presentation can't make it. His wife just went into labor with their first child.”

Marie smiled. “Certainly that is more important than any meeting.”

“I agree, but it puts me in the hot seat. My boss wants us to meet tonight and go over his presentation so I can give it in his place tomorrow. I hate to leave you alone like this, but—”

“Do not give it another thought. I would love the opportunity to explore your beautiful lands, and I am very comfortable with my own company,” Marie said, attempting to reassure Kat even as she tried not to think about how vastly different her visit was turning out to be from what she'd imagined. Perhaps her misgivings back in Atlantis had been well-founded, and she should contact Alaric to return. She could visit another time, she tried to console the empty space inside herself. Just because her first adventure was not unfolding as planned—

Kat cut into Marie's dejected thoughts. “I feel awful. We had so many plans—Bastien and I were going to take you to dinner at Thelma's and introduce you around, and…Wait! I know. Ethan
can take you. He told me last week he wanted the chance to get to know you while you were here.”